The national Civic Data Challenge is wrapping up this weekend and it needs the best and brightest ideas out there to help make localized "civic health" data useful through visualizations and apps that better educate and engage civic leaders on what's going on in their communities.

We're trying something a little different today, and we hope you'll join us.

As Republican and Democratic leaders have started debating health care in a televised forum today, the Sunlight Foundation is providing an alternative to the mainstream media's coverage with something we're calling Sunlight Live

"Working in Government is like running a marathon. Blindfolded. Wearing Sandbags"

That's a quote from Katie Stanton, who is now in the Office of Innovation at the State Department after transitioning from Google (with a little stop as White House citizen participation director in between). It speaks remarkably...

Tomorrow morning, software developers from around Washington, D.C. will come together at the Sunlight Foundation in order to find the best ways to use data and create solutions for aid workers to assist the relief efforts in Haiti. These CrisisCamps, (an idea which arose out of Transparency Camp...

People go up to Capitol Hill all the time to talk, but the ideas or perspectives that truly move are the ones pushed by people that are in touch with the up-to-the-minute pulse of Congress' workings and use that information to their advantage. It's not often pretty, but it's how...

Last week, Congress spent $1.1 trillion tax dollars by combining six pieces of appropriations ("spending") legislation into one 1,000+ page "minibus" bill and passing it with almost no public disclosure or debate. In fact, the bill was available to the public online for less than 24 hours.

It's now showing up all over the social web and in news reports. The government run website Recovery.gov -- which was set up to help the public hold government accountable for stimulus spending -- lists a stimulus contract awarded to Clougherty Packing LLC for $1.19M for the listed service of...

On November 12, Tom Brewer received an "URGENT call to action..." along with all other General Motors employees in the United States from GM North American President Troy Clarke. The return email address was "grassroots@gm.com." The urgent task at hand: Call your members of Congress to request that the...